The Two-Way
7:35 am
Tue February 21, 2012

Lawyer Says Strauss-Kahn Didn't Know Women At Orgies Were Prostitutes

Credit Francois Guillot / AFP/Getty Images
Dominique Strauss-Kahn in the studio of the French TV network TF1.

Former International Monetary Fund managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who famously faced a sexual assault charge in New York City last year — a charge that was later dropped — is now being questioned by police in France about whether he was a customer of an alleged multinational prostitution ring.

His attorney, though, says Strauss-Kahn has a defense.

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The Two-Way
7:10 am
Tue February 21, 2012

Doubts Linger After Late-Night Deal On Bailout For Greece

Credit Georges Gobet / AFP/Getty Images
Luxembourg Prime Minister and Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker scratches his eyes during a press conference following the meeting of Eurozone nations earlier today in Brussels.
  • NPR's Eric Westervelt, reporting on 'Morning Edition'

The top of the news today about the ongoing financial crisis in Europe is that:

"Greece won a second massive financial bailout early Tuesday morning when its partners in the 17-country eurozone finally stitched together a $170 billion rescue, meant to avoid a potentially disastrous default and secure the euro currency." (The Associated Press)

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It's All Politics
6:57 am
Tue February 21, 2012

Santorum's Problem With Women Could Be His Glass Ceiling

Credit Al Goldis / AP
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum speaks at the Kent County Lincoln Day Dinner on Monday in Grand Rapids, Mich.

As February began, Rick Santorum's presidential bid was polling in the mid-teens among Republicans. Now, we find ourselves two weeks deep in the Santorum Era. His national polling number has doubled since he won the Trifecta Tuesday events in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri.

Those were small contests with few participants and zero delegates at stake. But Santorum threatens to win far larger and more meaningful tests in Michigan and Arizona a week from now, and in Ohio a week after that.

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Movies
4:00 am
Tue February 21, 2012

Company Bets Bad Movies Are Good For Business

There area a lot of bad movies out there. Some movies are so bad that they're good. For some reason people love them. Is there an art to making films that are deliberately bad? Can a company be successful by producing bad movies?

Asia
4:00 am
Tue February 21, 2012

Looking Back On Nixon's Trip To China

Forty years ago Tuesday, President Richard Nixon became the first U.S. president to visit China. Renee Montagne looks back on that day in 1972.

Europe
4:00 am
Tue February 21, 2012

Bailout Reminds Greek Village Of WWII

Europe is still a continent that looks over its shoulder at a long and sometimes dark past. That extends even to the protracted Greek bailout negotiations, where Germany's dominant role has scratched at some historical wounds.

Germany occupied Greece during World War II, committing atrocities that some older Greeks can't forget. This history defines the pretty village of Distomo in central Greece, where Nazi soldiers killed 218 men, women and children in June 1944.

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Science
4:00 am
Tue February 21, 2012

Nature Has A Good Beat, But Can You Dance To It?

Rhythm in music is about timing — when notes start and stop. And now scientists say they've found a curious pattern that's common to musical rhythm. It's a pattern also found in nature.

Technology
4:00 am
Tue February 21, 2012

Why Twitter Ties Resemble Airline Hub Maps

Originally published on Tue February 21, 2012 6:26 am

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Some new research throws into question things we say all the time about the Internet. The research focuses on Twitter, the service that lets many millions of people send short messages to each other from computers or cell phones. It's commonly said that social networking like this is revolutionary, that it's created new communities, even that it's obliterated geography. You can connect with people who share common interests, not just people who happen to live nearby. NPR's Shankar Vedantam is here to explode all that. Hi, Shankar.

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Africa
4:00 am
Tue February 21, 2012

Yemeni Vote Expected To Install Next President

Originally published on Tue February 21, 2012 6:42 am

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.

One more Arab nation is changing a longtime leader. Yemen's president for 33 years was Ali Abdullah Saleh. Today, millions of Yemenis vote. And they're being asked to ratify a plan under which Saleh's vice president will replace him. NPR's Kelly McEvers is in Yemen's capital Sana'a.

And, Kelly, where exactly are you in the capital city?

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